In the interview she is chatting with endurance swimmer Diana Nyad, who recently swam from Cuba to Florida at age 64. Nyad unhesitatingly identifies as an atheist when asked about her beliefs, then adds that she sees no contradiction between her atheism and her ability to experience awe, or in her words to “weep with the beauty of this universe and be moved by all of humanity.”

Oprah, however, apparently found this description unsettling, for it seems that in her view atheists must be cold, emotionless rationalists. “Well I don’t call you an atheist then,” Oprah responded to Nyad's disclosure. “I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, then that is what God is.”...

Yeah, I get that a lot off/online. If I think the trees or sky is beautiful, or if something moves me in a positive manner, I'm either secretly a believer in Biblegod or it's working through me whether I believe or not.

Complete nonsense. As if all humans are unfeeling, emotionless people who can only feel something with a "god" making us feel.

It is clear that I am in the minority here, but I both like and admire Oprah. Probably, more than anyone else in the "one percent."

She is a rags to riches story. As a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, born to a single teenaged mom, she managed to pursue both higher education, and her dream of working in media, at a time in which women, especially black women, were not a common sight on tv.

She was bold enough to take the role of Sophie in The Color Purple. That is when she first hit my radar. I was scandalized that ET director Steven Spielberg was attempting to make a movie out of the groundbreaking book. But I fell in love with the movie, and many of the cast. Oprah took on what was perhaps the most difficult role in the whole film - that of a bright, self-aware woman with goals and dreams and a seemingly infinite amount of strength, who was broken, both physically and emotionally. Oprah's performance was beyond spectacular. Hauntingly, painfully, spectacular.

I like her talk show. It was her great rise to fame, and fortune. I don't think it was the best thing on tv, but it was interesting and bold, and of course as her fame and power grew, the most interesting people in the world vied to be her guests.

She promoted reading to an audience of many non-readers. If Oprah promoted a book, it was on the NY Times best seller list immediately. I'm pretty sure that I first read quite a few books, including The Red Tent and the Poisonwood Bible due to the Oprah hype. The Poisonwood Bible is certainly still among my top ten favorite all-time favorite works of fiction. If you haven't read it, you should!!!

Oprah rise to fame was so unlikely. Women on tv are supposed to be pretty. That is still true today, but it was even more true when she started out. Famous black people were generally athletes in that era. She was neither. Her intelligence and her charisma, coupled with a whole lot of luck, were her only tools.

Oprah has dedicated a significant part of her life to fighting prejudice. As this insightful article demonstrates, even the greatest champions in the struggle against marginalization can in fact, continue to carry their own biases.

Yeah. I hope she reads he article. I hope she thinks about it and learns. And I hope that she takes what she has learned, and shares it with her followers.

But Oprah has deep religious views. So if she were to join this forum, would she be called stupid and an idiot like so many theists before her? I always had accepted people and their views with them, as part of them, whether or not I agreed, regardless of whether they fit with mine. Oprah did not do so with this woman. She recast Ms. Nyad's views to fit her own SPAG, right to her face. I find that disrespectful, condescending and offensive.

Does O really have a dog in the fight to justify trampling on Nyad's stated views? It's not like Nyad came out and said she thought child sexual abuse was good for little girls, and O felt compelled to take her on about her stupidity.

Now O's faithful masses have another arrow in their quiver to poke atheists with - blessed by the lack of critical thinking from the mighty O who has her own SPAG history. I hope she gets some backlash and addresses this in a more thoughtful way.

Logged

If xian hell really exists, the stench of the burning billions of us should be a constant, putrid reminder to the handful of heavenward xians how loving your god is. - neopagan

Does O really have a dog in the fight to justify trampling on Nyad's stated views? It's not like Nyad came out and said she thought child sexual abuse was good for little girls, and O felt compelled to take her on about her stupidity.

Now O's faithful masses have another arrow in their quiver to poke atheists with - blessed by the lack of critical thinking from the mighty O who has her own SPAG history. I hope she gets some backlash and addresses this in a more thoughtful way.

Out of all the times i have heard this argument, i still cannot comprehend why some theists think that atheists have no feelings, love, awe, radda radda.

Logged

Rule 1: No pooftas. Rule 2: No maltreating the theists, IF, anyone is watching. Rule 3: No pooftas. Rule 4: I do not want to see anyone NOT drinking after light out. Rule 5: No pooftas. Rule 6: There is NO...rule 6.

Quesi - I agree, Oprah is an amazing success story. There is a lot about her that I like. But, this is another case of someone with so much influence, making a mistake and not even realizing it. Hopefully, this will get around to her, and she can rethink her approach.

What she did has a harmful effect on the cause of allowing atheists to live openly and freely in societies.

Rule 1: No pooftas. Rule 2: No maltreating the theists, IF, anyone is watching. Rule 3: No pooftas. Rule 4: I do not want to see anyone NOT drinking after light out. Rule 5: No pooftas. Rule 6: There is NO...rule 6.

Our species, not race. We are assholes because we are just dumb animals. We don't expect chimps or tigers to not be assholes, so let's not be so hard on ourselves. We would need some form of selection to weed out the assholes - prevent them from breeding - then in a few thousand years we'd be a kinder species.

Our species, not race. We are assholes because we are just dumb animals. We don't expect chimps or tigers to not be assholes, so let's not be so hard on ourselves. We would need some form of selection to weed out the assholes - prevent them from breeding - then in a few thousand years we'd be a kinder species.

Not my type of asshole. People tend to not only like my type but also need my type from time to time. My services were required with certain family members just last week. If my type of asshole wasn't around to take care of these little problems then the world would be one giant pussy.

One of the things I don't like about O is not just how disconnected she is from reality, but how condescending she is about it. That whole thing about her telling people they should have their staff put clean, pressed, 600 thread count sheets on their beds, every day. Or when she went on the "totally not lesbian road trip" with Gail and realized that for the last 20 years she'd had a driver and had forgotten how to pump gas.

To me I think this could be a case of Oprah being beholden to her (seemingly) deistic or pantheistic beliefs and expecting that if others knew what she knew, they'd be beholden as well. It sounds as if Oprah was patronizingly saying that she felt someone else was misguided and that Oprah knew better an was an authority of sorts in that she had the right to correct poor little misguided atheist.

Rather arrogant and presumptous she was, and she delivered her 'correction' as if she was a teacher and swimmer was her student. She tends to take that approach with quite a number of her guests as many of them allow themselves to be beholden and somewhat in awe of the mighty O and I think that that type of worship can definately go to someone's head.

Our species, not race. We are assholes because we are just dumb animals. We don't expect chimps or tigers to not be assholes, so let's not be so hard on ourselves. We would need some form of selection to weed out the assholes - prevent them from breeding - then in a few thousand years we'd be a kinder species.

Not my type of asshole. People tend to not only like my type but also need my type from time to time. My services were required with certain family members just last week. If my type of asshole wasn't around to take care of these little problems then the world would be one giant pussy.

Frankly, I don't know if that's bad, or good.

-Nam

So in some respects bad is not only needed, but it is in fact good? I'll buy that.